


Hopp To It

by Maul_Junior



Category: Callisto 6 (Web Series)
Genre: Blue Dolphin Base
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 15:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19022992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maul_Junior/pseuds/Maul_Junior
Summary: Hopps needs some privacy, and runs into Moonlight. Spoilers for late-series episodes.





	Hopp To It

Blue Dolphin base sat below the waves, perched on a shelf of rock, as much a part of the local bathymetry to the local sea life as anything else. It had once been full of life, up to the very brim, but that had been long ago. It had been abandoned to the few remaining creatures that somehow survived within. But then life, as it so often did, returned. Blue Dolphin Base was no longer a place of peril, but of family and safety. Relative safety.

Hopps muttered under her breath as she pushed harder against the door, determined to make it through. According to the schematics that Lacy had provided, there should be an observation lounge through here, but there had been debris shoved up against the door. Lacy had swung Amelia by this part of the base, and confirmed that it was still air-tight, then had dived back into whatever tech gumbo they had been cooking up. The holos that Amelia had taken had made it look like this would have a spectacular view.

The team had reclaimed the base for themselves some time before, and had begun the process of fixing everything up. Most of the base had been mostly intact, but some areas had been effectively sealed off due to twenty years of decay. There had been enough going on that the team had focused mainly on their efforts outside of the base, and had not had enough time to reclaim every last bit of the base.

Hopps slammed against the door again, grimacing as pain bloomed through her shoulder. That was all well and good, but the base was sometimes a little too small for as many people as were getting crammed down here these days. Maybe for someone like Luma it would be the best thing ever, but Hopps had been prowling around the base for the last several days, looking for a place that could be just hers, to unwind whenever she had had too much of everyone else.

Hopps shifted her feet, braced herself, and then slammed against the door again, feeling it give just another slight inch. Maybe she was part of some kind of superhero team, but that was all new to her. Sometimes there were too many people around. She wasn’t used to this kind of—

Hopps growled, pushing the thought down. She took several steps back, glaring at the door. It was going to MOVE! She let out a roar, and ran towards the door, feeling her speed pick up even as blue sparks showered down from the tips of her air, and blue lines of electricity jumped from her hands to her feet. She found herself leaping off the ground, throwing her entire body weight into the door, which disintegrated under her assault. Hopps found herself tumbling across what had once been a nice carpet amidst shards of smoldering pieces of metal that seared the carpet black.

She glared out the glass at the darkness beyond as she tried to ignore the thought that crept, unwanted, back into her mind. She wasn’t used to this kind of family. Not anymore. There had been a time—Hopps got to her feet and dusted herself off, throwing the thoughts and memories away. She didn’t have a use for them any more.

There was a low rumbling from behind her, and then a low, gravelly voice asked “Coffee?”

Hopps turned, and saw, sitting in front of a floor-to-ceiling plate of glass, a large figure, framed by the moonlight shining down through the water from above. He was huge, misshapen, and from her personal experience a giant sweetheart. A carafe of a dark brown liquid rested by his hand.

“No, Sal, I’m fine,” Hopps said, looking around the room, suddenly embarrassed that she had lost control. Obviously there was some other way in here. Some way that wasn’t on Lacy’s schematics. The room was fairly big, with bland carpeting, white signs with faded blue print extolling the virtues of the surrounding sea life that suggested that this was a sort of waiting room for visitors to the lab.

The convex windows bulged subtly outwards, reminding Hopps of an aquarium, long ago. She had gone there, and leaned out into the glass bubble, staring with wide eyes at the fish inside. Her mother had been there, and so had—Hopps took a deep breath, and centered herself.

A soft, delicate hand appeared on her shoulder. Instinctively, Hopps flinched away, a surge of electricity jolting through her body in an involuntary defensive reflex. As quickly as it came, Hopps forced it down.

“I-I’m sorry,” Hopps muttered, turning around, dragging her gaze across the floor. “I’m sorry Oya, I didn’t meant to—” The severe face looking down at Hopps was not Oya. “Sorry, Moonlight, I thought—I mean, I—” Hopps threw up her hands, pulling herself away from the woman that stared impassively at her. “I guess I don’t know what I mean. I don’t know!”

Moonlight slowly crossed her arms, and cocked her head at a slight angle, watching Hopps. She didn’t say anything, just stood there, staring. It was kind of creepy. What that bastard had done to her.

Hopps sighed and knelt down to one of the smoldering bits of metal that had once been a door. She touched it, quickly, with a finger. It was still too hot to pick up, so she kicked it with a boot towards another bit of door. She liked Moonlight, she really did, but it wasn’t easy for her to connect with any of the other Callisto 6, let alone someone who was mostly tech these days. Hopps sneaked a quick look over her shoulder, and saw Moonlight studying her, her hair framed by the rays of light spearing down from the surface.

She didn’t much like tech these days. Not since…It made relating to Moonlight that much more difficult. She didn’t have a problem with Moonlight, not really. No more than any of the others. But she didn’t, they weren’t—whatever. Except Anton. She had known him Before. That made all the difference.

“I didn’t realize that you were in here,” Hopps muttered, feeling like she should say something more. She needed to. But there was a feeling in her gut, like she was being pulled towards the door. She wanted to stay. To actually look around this room. But she had made enough of a fool of herself already. “Sorry,” Hopps muttered, and ran towards the door.

In her rush, she didn’t even realize that she cleared forty feet in a second, leaving behind nothing but a trail of blazing blue sparks in the air.

 

 

Moonlight watched the red one leave. Had she done something to instigate the retreat? She had not intended as such. But…sometimes things happened. Had the red one—Hopps, she corrected herself. The red one’s name was Hopps. Had Hopps merely asked, she would have been happy to show her the path that Sal had made to this room years ago. Or maybe it had not been Sal?

The big brute was staring at the door, coffee carafe in hand, looking lost and somewhat forlorn. “No Coffee,” Sal muttered, carefully setting his precious totem down and once again settling himself down, cross-legged, to watch the byplay of light in the water.

Moonlight stared down the hallway for several seconds more, thinking. Questions that had been burning in her mind and on her lips were forced back down. The red—Hopps was different than the others. Not quite as—profusive in their social entreaties. It was a talent—no, not talent—trait that Moonlight felt she somehow shared. She had meant to ask the question, but Hopps had left before she could ask. There would be other times to ask.

Moonlight turned back to Sal. He watched her with wide, innocent eyes. “Moon...light?” he asked in a stiltered, urgent tone.

Moonlight smiled, and cupped his chin with one of her hands. “Yes, Sal, I’m coming back.” Moonlight settled into Sal’s lap, and relaxed back into his body, letting his looming enormity dwarf her as they both stared out into the water’s outside of the Blue Dolphin Base, watching the play of the moonlight through the waves, and the occasional school of fish dart through their field of vision.

 

Blue Dolphin base sat below the waves, perched on a shelf of rock, as much a part of the local bathymetry to the local sea life as anything else. Whatever else it had once been, to Moonlight and Sal, it was now Home.


End file.
